Reserves Protect against Deforestation Fires in the Amazon

Abstract

BackgroundReserves are the principal means to conserve forests and biodiversity, but the question of whether reserves work is still debated. In the Amazon, fires are closely linked to deforestation, and thus can be used as a proxy for reserve effectiveness in protecting forest cover. We ask whether reserves in the Brazilian Amazon provide effective protection against deforestation and consequently fires, whether that protection is because of their location or their legal status, and whether some reserve types are more effective than others.Methodology/Principal FindingsPrevious work has shown that most Amazonian fires occur close to roads and are more frequent in El Niño years. We quantified these relationships for reserves and unprotected areas by examining satellite-detected hot pixels regressed against road distance across the entire Brazilian Amazon and for a decade with 2 El Niño-related droughts. Deforestation fires, as measured by hot pixels, declined exponentially with increasing distance from roads in all areas. Fewer deforestation fires occurred within protected areas than outside and the difference between protected and unprotected areas was greatest near roads. Thus, reserves were especially effective at preventing these fires where they are known to be most likely to burn; but they did not provide absolute protection. Even within reserves, at a given distance from roads, there were more deforestation fires in regions with high human impact than in those with low impact. The effect of El Niño on deforestation fires was greatest outside of reserves and near roads. Indigenous reserves, limited-use reserves, and fully protected reserves all had fewer fires than outside areas and did not appear to differ in their effectiveness.Conclusions/SignificanceTaking time, regional factors, and climate into account, our results show that reserves are an effective tool for curbing destructive burning in the Amazon.

Impacts of roads and linear clearings on tropical forests

“…mongabay.com/2008/0926-amazon.html). More generally, major forest fires are less frequent near roads in Amazonian PAs (including semi-protected reserves and indigenous lands) than near roads in unprotected forest (Figure 4) [86].…”

Land-use and climate change risks in the Amazon and the need of a novel sustainable development paradigm

“…Third Way as Paradigm of Sustainable Development for the Amazon In terms of development policy pathways for the Amazon, two modes have historically dominated: (i) a valuable nature conservation approach with large swathes of territory legally protected from any economic and human activity outside indigenous peopleswhich comprise 2.1 million km 2 , or about 43% of Brazilian Amazon (153,163,164); and (ii) an approach that has focused on conversion or degradation of forests for the production of either protein commodities (e.g., meat and soya) or tropical timber at the forest frontier and the build-out of massive hydropower generation capacity-which together have been historically responsible for massive deforestation of the Amazon (30,31) and generated other significant negative externalities.…”

Multi-year MODIS active fire type classification over the Brazilian Tropical Moist Forest Biome

“…Adeney, Christensen, and Pimm (2009) observed that 90% of satellite active fire detections derived from a variety of polar orbiting satellites occurred within 10 km of official roads in the Brazilian Amazon. Similarly, 50% and 95% of MODIS active fire detections were found to occur within 1 and 10 km, respectively, of official and unofficial roads and navigable rivers in the BTMFB (Kumar et al 2014).…”